


Love Natural

by rottingweiler



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-04
Updated: 2013-07-04
Packaged: 2017-12-16 17:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/864546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rottingweiler/pseuds/rottingweiler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Freya Dearborn moves back to Glasgow to start university. She meets a lot of new people, among them; an edgy punk, a model flatmate, and the lead singer of a small band. Freya soon finds herself on a completely separate road from what she thought she would do with her life, and dealing with the changes costs her something she loves most of all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Natural

She peered at the spindly arachnid as it crawled up her leg. Small and brown, frantically clinging to her dark skin with its barbed feet. It managed to scurry up to her bare knee before she caught it with her hand, and guided it gently to the armrest of the wooden bench. From there, it ran off, down the leg of the bench, to the rain-speckled ground. 

It was a wet summer's day. Freya Dearborn watched the half-dead dandelions shiver in the cold breeze. Living on a small Scottish island, there were always cold breezes from the oceans, coming from every corner. Freya had grown up by the jutting rocks of a beach. Her house was not exactly ocean-front; being partially blocked by a short expanse of forest. Her family had moved from Glasgow to Talburg when Freya was barely five years old. She barely remembered it. 

Summer on Talburg Island was rarely warm. Sunny, yes— but with a cold sun. Winter was fierce. Even in the middle of summer, as it was, dew frosted the garden plants in Freya's front lawn in the morning, grey clouds blocked most of the sun's warmth, and, as always, the bitter wind nipped at her ears. 

Freya was waiting for her school bus to bring her home from school. Today had been her second last day before she was set free, forever. She had one more exam tomorrow, one that she was absolutely dreading— science. Freya happened to love science, but only science having to do with biology. Neuroscience especially. Not chemistry. Chemistry was terrifically difficult for Freya to understand, and she felt as if she'd rather enjoy cutting off her own arm, in comparison to doing a Chem 12 exam when she could be sleeping in. 

“Freya!” 

Frey turned, only to see her best friend, Isobel MacTavish, walking towards her. She was hand-in-hand with her new boyfriend, Roy Gurtan. 

“Bela,” Freya smiled in greeting. She stood up to walk with them.

Isobel was tall, with dark red hair that cascaded down her shoulders in graceful waves, and pale, freckley skin. Her lean limbs were muscular from years on the swim team. Just about the physical opposite of Freya, who was dark-skinned and thin, with long, wavy black hair that became annoyingly frizzy if she did not put much care into maintaining it. 

Roy was dark-haired, with similar milk-white skin to match Isobela's. He seemingly wore only a limited collection of pullovers and black jeans. Freya had never seen him in anything else. 

“Hey,” he nodded to her. He never said much, either. To Freya, at least. 

“Hello,” she said to him, falling in step beside Isobela as they walked to the buses. 

“Ni allaf gredu!” Isobela exhaled tiredly in Welsh, which she had just completed the course for. Her exam for the language had began and ended at the same time as Freya’s English exam today.

“Was it hard?” Freya questioned.

“So hard,” Isobela sighed.

“I’m sure you did fine,” Roy piped up in his usual quiet voice. Isobela shook her head sadly.

“I think I failed it.” she whimpered dramatically, tucking a fiery red lock of hair behind her ear.

Isobela was a perfectionist. Her swim records were the best of her team, her grades were well above the average, and she was very strong and very smart and very kind. So, when she assumed she did badly on a test, melodrama was bound to ensue. She was very moody, too, when she felt like it.

Freya did her best to comfort her best friend.

“Listen, Bela. Even if you did do badly on your exam, which is, given, highly unlikely,” she began, “It’ll barely bring your GPA down, right?”

“I wonder if this means my scholarship is down the drain,” Isobela muttered, not listening.

Freya sighed. You already know English, Gaelic, and French; I’m sure you’ll be fine, she felt like saying, but she bit her tongue. She knew how important grades had always been to her friend.

The three friends continued to the bus stop, where three yellow school buses were lined up in a row. Kids milled around in the area, the younger ones talking and laughing at the prospect of having a whole two months off of school for the summer.

Then it hit Freya: This was it. 

One more day left, and she’d be gone for good. No more grouchy Social Studies teacher reprimanding her for late work, no more cinderblock hallways. She knew that she really wanted to stay in touch with Isobela and Roy and her other friends, but realistically, Freya knew that she would see them very rarely when they went off to seperate post-secondary schools. 

She felt very cold all of a sudden, and very scared. She knew where she wanted to go— back to Glasgow, and study neuroscience and physics there. She'd got a scholarship at a medical school. Isobela would be headed all the way to London, to learn dentistry. Freya wasn’t too certain of where Roy was off to, but she recalled a vague memory of him saying that he was interested in mechanics and engineering. 

Freya was going to leave everything behind her to go to college. She was going to leave her parents behind, and all her memories of growing up, along with the friends she’d had since elementary school.

Anxiety gripped her like a sealing clamp. She was so uncertain when it came to her future. Would her school be nice? What would her classes be like? What would her room mate be like?

“Freya?” came the voice of Isabela. It sounded far away. Freya snapped back to reality.

Isabela and Roy were standing beside their bus. They lived on a different part of the island than Freya, so they had to take a different bus with a different route.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Isabela said, with her characteristic smile lighting up her face. She seemed to be much happier than she was one minute ago.

Freya smiled back, trying not to show how anxious she was. “Yeah ... See you guys.”

Isabela and Roy climbed on their bus together. Freya turned, to get onto hers.

The ride home was uneventful, and calmed Freya down a bit. She found time to think, away from her friends and from school. 

The future wouldn't be as scary as she thought it would be. It wouldn't be like she couldn't ask her parents for help and tips on what to do when you live without them. She was sure to make friends in Glasgow. 

She crept silently into her house. Her father was still at work, and her mother was probably still sleeping after working the night shift at the hospital.

The house was quiet. 

Freya walked to her bedroom, and fell heavily on to her bed. Her cat, Talon, let out a disgruntled squeak as his human friend collapsed beside him. 

“Hey, little buddy,” Freya smiled tiredly, reaching out to pet him. He drew his head back regally, refusing to be touched. 

Freya glanced around her impossibly messy room. It was littered with clothes, books, school paper worksheets, and all manner of other gross teenager things. She sighed. She'd have to clean all of it up soon, and box everything away to be moved into her apartmeant in Glasgow. She had it all arranged with a landlady there. She was going to be living in a medium-size flat with one room mate to share in paying the rent. Freya hoped the room mate wasn't a slob or a creep. Hoping, however, always seemed futile. 

Freya studied for her last exam tomorrow, ate some dinner, and returned to room, yawning. 

There was a text from Isobela on her phone waiting for her when she got back. 

‘'Freya! You have to listen to this song by The Little Pines. They're this underground band I found earlier. The song is called Cherry Girl.’  
—IM

Freya grinned. 

‘You and your underground bands. Alright, I'll check 'em out.’  
—FD

She found her way onto YouTube and looked up the band, and started to listen to the recommended song. It was, as Freya had to admit to Isobela later, pretty good. It was very catchy and cute. A nice, upbeat relief from all the wordless classical she had been listening to while studying. 

The rest of her evening passed in relatively undisturbed silence. Her father came home; she heard his truck pull into their driveway. 

Freya finally fell asleep at 11 pm, her textbook still open on her bedside table. 

 

***

 

The next day, Freya got to her exam just barely on time, having foolishly slept in. All went well, and she was told to look up her report card in two weeks on the school's website.

She found Isobela outside of the school, sitting by the cafeteria. 

"What's up?" Freya said, sitting down next to her friend tiredly. 

"Well, it turns out that my scholarship will be fine. I'm going to London after all!" she said gleefully. "Oh— how did your exam go?"

"I think it went well enough," said Freya. "And I am now ready to sleep for the next two months."

Isobela laughed. "I can understand that. I feel like my brain just ran a marathon. It's still buzzing from the pre-calc exam I just had. I hate that stuff. Unfortunately, I still have to work full-time this summer, so no sleeping in for me."

"Dear God, woman. Do you ever rest?" Freya asked incredulously. 

Isobela grinned. "I try not to. Oh, so what did you think of that band? The Little Pines?"

"They were nice." Freya shrugged. 

"They're Irish. They broke up a year ago, though. It's too bad that I discovered them only last week. The former lead singer is seriously cute. He's like, twenty-three, or something."

"Watch out, mate," Freya chuckled. "I think Roy is just around the bend." 

Isobela punched her softly on the shoulder. 

"Hey, I'm allowed to think a band member is cute," she said, smiling. 

"If you say so," Freya said. 

"I'm going to miss you." Isobela said suddenly. Something painful lurched in Freya's stomach. "Like, so damn much."

"I'm going to miss you, too," Freya said quietly. 

 

***

 

The freedom that summer break brought to Freya was not altogether comforting. Her mother still worked the night shift at the hospital and slept in her room all day , and her father worked all day, so she didn't see much of either of them. For the most part, Freya spent her days cleaning out her room and putting her things in boxes. She had a week to pack up, and then she was to be off to Glasgow. 

 

However, on the day before she was going to leave, her parents surprised her with a nice home-made dinner. 

"For our very own grown-up young lady," said Freya's father, setting down a giant pot of mashed potatoes among salmon and steamed green beans. 

"Thank you so much, Dad," Freya beamed. 

"Hey, I helped some too," Freya's mother reminded them. 

"Hmm, yes, sampling the green beans before they were ready," her husband corrected. 

"It's an important job," said his wife, before promptly bursting into tears. 

"Mum!" Freya exclaimed in alarm. 

Her mother wiped away her tears on a napkin. 

"I'm okay, I'm okay. I'm just so..." she looked then at Freya with love. "I am so proud of you, sweetheart." her voice cracked. "You've come so far. And you being accepted into Luithglen University, that is so amazing."

Freya grasped her mother's hand, feeling her eyes begin to brim with tears. "Thank you Mum," she said, her voice wavering. It was rare for her mother to break down like this, but at least the cause was positive. 

 

Freya went to bed with her stomach wheeling. Her mind felt like it was on a roller coaster. This was it; this was her last night on Talburg. Her room was bare save for several boxes that weren't already downstairs, and the mattress that she slept on. 

The morning came much earlier than expected. Freya managed to rouse herself at 6:30. Her parents weren't up yet, so she carried her two suitcases downstairs and loaded up her car. 

"Sweetheart, what on earth are you doing up?" came a voice, and Freya turned. Her mother had exited the house silently, and was leaning against the door with a grey housecoat on. Despite how early it was, she looked fully awake. Maybe a little too awake. 

"Can I ask you the same question?" Freya ventured. "Mum, you got the night off!"

Her mother only smiled and shook her head. "I couldn't miss saying goodbye to you, and I didn't actually sleep at all last night."

"What!" Freya cried. "Why not?"

"I'm just too used to not sleeping. I played Solitaire on the computer for about three whole hours."

"Unbelievable," Freya sighed. "Well, is Dad up yet?"

"I believe he's still asleep." 

Freya checked that her car was ready to make the full trip, then went to wake up her father, followed by her mother. She didn't have much time left. 

"Dad?" she murmured, standing beside his bed. 

"Hrrgh..." came a muffled answer, before her father rolled over and blinked up at her. 

"Freya! Oh God, is it... What time is it? Are you leaving now?" he asked hurriedly, sitting up. 

Freya smiled sadly. "Yeah. I'm leaving now. I have about five minutes."

"Jesus... Okay, okay. I'm getting up. Sorry, Sweets." he fumbled out of bed, his wife chortling.

The three of them loaded into the car, with Freya driving her vehicle. 

They made it to the ferry terminal with a little while to spare. 

"You'll Skype me every night, won't you?" Freya's mother asked tearfully as they waited for the ferry to finish unloading. 

"'Course, mum," Freya promised. 

"I'm so excited for you. You'll do great," her mother continued. "Remember to go to all of your lectures. Don't forget your books. Tell me all about your flatmate! And stay away from troublesome boys."

The first line of cars started to board the ferry. Freya advised her parents to step out, otherwise they're have a difficult time getting out later. They obliged, hanging around the car outside. 

"Aunt Grace will pick you guys up, right?" Freya questioned worriedly. 

"Yes, Sweets," her father reassured. "Have an amazing time. We'll see you at Christmas. Love you."

That was the last time Freya saw her parents face-to-face for a long time. She boarded the ferry, her parents waving goodbye to her.


End file.
